Comb plates of this kind are used, for example, in escalators or moving sidewalks. They prevent objects, such as clothing articles, shoes, or even body parts of traveling guests from being taken along and crushed at the place where the step belt “disappears” in operation. For this purpose, teeth or prongs are provided, which mesh with corresponding grooves in the step belt. The teeth are beveled in such a way that move an object carried along with the step belt away and thus prevent it from being caught or crushed.
The step belt is the area of the people mover that moves the people. On it, along the exposed surface of the path of movement, the traveling guests are carried along, walking or standing. In an escalator, the step belt is also called a stair belt. This stair belt consists of several stair steps connected to one another, on the upper side of which grooves are provided. In moving sidewalks, the step bands have plate bodies connected to one another; the step band is also called a plate belt. The plates also have grooves on their upper side to mesh with the comb plate. Moving sidewalks are also known in which the step band consists of a relatively elastic material, for example a reinforced plastic material, running essentially along the entire step band, i.e. in step bands of this kind, there are no slits between individual plate bodies or stair bodies.
Comb plates consists, for example, of cast tin or cast aluminum and have about 80 teeth in each case, about 2 mm wide and 4 cm long. The teeth of the comb plate are relatively small and are subject to breakage. Legal standards, for example European standard EN 115 for the people mover mentioned, require regular checking of the people mover, for example weekly or daily. Thus a daily checking of the teeth according to EN 115 requires a “superintendent.” According to EN 115, a people mover must no longer be operated if two directly adjacent teeth are broken. These required regular inspections make operation much more expensive. Thus, for example, the superintendent requires training. In addition, he has to be paid for his activities. Whereas functional inspections of the essentially different electrical and mechanical components of an escalator or moving sidewalk can be made by remote monitoring (REM—Remote Escalator Monitoring), checking for breakage of the teeth of the comb plate has so far required the physical presence of a control person.
The task of the present invention is therefore to provide a people mover with a comb plate or a comb plate in which the physical presence of a control person is not required.